Forget the Fact the Gas Prices are Down; Plug-Ins are Up

Over the past few years the price of gas at the pump has dramatically decreased to make it more affordable than a decade ago to drive your vehicle on the road. This has raised at least one question and that is whether or not the market for EV models and hybrids would continue to be strong. With a wide variety of these vehicles on the road and the fact that you can now enjoy ranges that are better than ever the EV market is actually experiencing strong numbers over the past several months.

The surge in plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles has as much to do with our desire to purchase these models as it does with the fact that one automaker was able to produce more models last month than they have in any previous time. Tesla Motors, which is surging production upward because of their goal to be able to produce half a million models a year in the next couple years, has their strongest sales month ever in September. During this month 10,032 battery electrics were sold and 4,100 were Tesla Model S models while 2,600 were Tesla Model X models.

When you add the plug-in hybrid models to the mix the total sold in September was 16,069 which was 1.12 percent of the total sales in September, the highest mark we’ve seen for this segment of sales. These sales have been surging throughout this year as the previous high sales mark was made in June and the previous high total number was reached in August.

While these battery and plug-in models enjoyed success, the diesel market took a hit, mostly caused by the continued distaste over the VW scandal. VW used to carry much of the sales in the diesel market but they have been put on hold until they can come up with an approved fix, which might not ever happen. This has left the door open for these battery electric models and the plug-in hybrids that are now taking more market share from the diesels than they have in the past.

Is it really any surprise the market has experienced this surge in sales for this particular segment than ever before? We now have more battery electric models and plug-in hybrids on the market than we’ve ever had and they are more affordable than ever as well. While this overall push in sales still isn’t going to cause most of the world to turn away from the gasoline engines, the fact that more are being sold than ever is a positive sign that the vehicles are starting to meet the masses and the message is out.

As for the overall sales for this year, it appears the auto industry as a whole will enjoy even better sales than the regular sales last year. Right now the plug-in sales for 2016 has reached a total of 109,513 which is only a small amount behind the grand total from a year ago of 114,428. This puts our market on track to beat this number by a significant figure by the end of the year.